ARBC5 What is old is new again

mart1n2005 · 26 December 2023 16:51

ARBC5 What is old is new again

Johannesburg, South Africa 1990

Brief

The Valiant motor company see the expanding South African car market as somewhere to expand into, and perhaps use this as a foothold to sell vehicles further north into the rest of the continent.

However they have no presence in Africa and due to the current geo politics happening in the country and the overall low spending power of the people don’t want to invest in a brand new model.

This is where your company comes in, you take a vehicle that has already paid for it’s development and make a compelling purchase choice.

The Challenge

Previous round

Take the first generation Valiant Ventis which was sold between 1978 - 1985 and modernise it without changing the sheet metal entirely.

ARBC5_-USERNAME-_Valiant_Ventis.car|attachment (196.9 KB)

Colours explained

RED Feel free to change any of the fixtures or add new fixtures in these areas,
ORANGE These fixtures can be changed for others that serve the same function. The exception here is the trim line along the side as this is kind of a design feature but if you feel your design would feel more modern without it then it can be completely removed or maybe swapped out for another line that fulfils the same idea.
YELLOW These are areas that could do with being swapped out for something more akin to the 90’s as they. Door cards don’t necessarily need to be changed out completely however if something like better arm rests and design make them seem newer.

The Rules

Clone the entire car and engine with the highlighted button

Set trim and variant to 1990
leave the Techpool at +5. I’m sure there could be some clever use of techpool here if it was CSR to show the age of the underlying car, but I’m not about to get involved in that.
The car must retain five full seats.
You can repaint whatever you like and change materials however you feel fit. Badges and lettering can be changed to match your chosen brand.
The allowed morphs are:
L front side
FrontBumperLower
HoodSlant
FrontAngle
L Fender, L quarter
L Rearside
FrontBumperLower 2
Fender alt
Quarter alt
No chassis or body panel changes.
No engine family changes.
Fuel must be leaded 92RON, the car must pass WES5 emissions standards.

Inspirations

Some of these are too new or too old, but the idea still stands.

Real life examples of the type of cars.

18940788

Judging

Both design and engineering are important here. The car has to compete with both other low cost options but also used cars in the market.
There are no price guides but bear in mind the priorities of the marketplace of the time.

Priorities

purchase and service costs.
reliability

comfort
safety
drivability

fuel economy
practicality
Environmental resistance

Submissions

Rules are up until the 1 January 2024
Round will open 1 January 2024 and close 31 January 2024
Now we are all on the stable branch resubmissions shouldn’t be needed unless there is an exceptional circumstance.

changleog

changes so far

uploaded the car again with the correct naming scheme.

abg7 · 27 December 2023 03:32

Without a catalytic converter (which is incompatible with leaded fuels), meeting later emissions standards would be a tall order at the very least - hence the fact that the engine only needs to be compatible with WES 5. Besides, in South Africa circa 1990, leaded fuels had not been phased out completely.

mart1n2005 · 28 December 2023 16:31

Just realised the car i’ve provided has the wrong challenge number so i’ve updated it to ARBC5 now

azkaalfafa · 19 January 2024 15:27

Less is, well, less.

GINKYO STREAK

by Ginkyo Motors

mart1n2005 · 22 January 2024 18:57

Week left on this if anyone else is interested?

Restomod · 23 January 2024 01:09

I’ll go

JLKpro · 23 January 2024 01:42

‎‎‎‎‎‎

-------------------------------------- Presenting: The 1990 Bonneville Sunflower -------------------------------------

                          Definitely One of the Cars that Exists

Dildoplocus · 23 January 2024 19:58

Hi !
How do I submit my build ?

mart1n2005 · 23 January 2024 20:15

Put up a post here with some pictures and info and then send the .car to me in a dm

Dildoplocus · 23 January 2024 21:55

Mukanga Sandton

Dildoplocus · 23 January 2024 22:00

JLKpro · 25 January 2024 02:18

mart1n2005 · 7 February 2024 19:39

A meeting room in Johannesburg, South Africa

The Evaluation

The four entries have been evaluated and photographed at a studio and now the relevant stats are to be discussed in front of the people running the Valiant South Africa automotive business.

From left to right: Mukanga Sandton, Bonneville sunflower, Ginkyo Streak and Zephorus Burese sport.

Styling

The first order of business is design and how the cars have been successfully updated for the 90’s.
Three of the cars have attempted to add rounded design elements to the front and rear however the biggest change is the Sandton which makes the entire front end much lower and gives quite an aerodynamic look to it, the squared rectangle rear lights fit this design theme rather well too. The Sunflower has attempted to fit very 90’s blobby head and tail lights to the squared body, this doesn’t necessarily flow the best at the front however the rear does look good and the bumpers and lower body sections are styled well. The Burese and the Streak are somewhat similar in their front end treatments, with mainly squared headlights and small grille opening. At the rear the Streak goes for large full width tail lights that still seem very much of the 80’s with the Burese using much more modern rounded composite items. The large front spoiler and twin exhausts of the Zephorus Burese are somewhat extreme for the class of car this is aiming for though.

Driving

All the cars use the stock 1297cc inline four engine from the Ventis with upgrades to make it more fuel efficient and cleaner for the environment. The burese and Streak opt for a single two barrel carburettor, the Sandton goes for a single barrel carburettor and curiously for the time the Sunflower opts for fully mechanical fuel injection. WIth the fuel injection the Sunflower is obviously the most powerful with 67bhp, this gives it a 10bhp advantage over the lowest car (the Burese sport).
When it comes to turning this power into forward momentum the Sunflower is also the fastest to 100km/h with a dead 13 seconds The Sunflower does however have the worst stopping distance too and this is by over four and a half metres, it’s the heaviest car but noy by much at all. All cars with the exception of the Sandton includes ABS with their brakes. None of the cars however come with any kind of power steering, and maybe this would have been an easier sell than ABS on the cars. The Ginkyo Streak is the only car to come with a four speed manual gearbox, this no doubt hindering the fuel economy which is the highest usage here.

Costs

At the end of the day this is the most important part of one of these cars being selected for sale as they are to be marketed at a very cost conscious market and against used car sales.
The cheapest car here is the Sandton, though not by much as it is only R10 cheaper than the Ginkyo Streak at R8530 and R8540 respectively. The Sunflower is the real outlier here by costing R10200 and the only car to cross the 10,000 marker. At this level that really is the upper limit and makes the Sunflower a hard proposition bearing in mind the fuel economy and service costs are really in the very centre of the figures. The Sandton is not only the cheapest car it also has the lowest service costs by some margin, which is pleasing as both it and the Burese have standard cassette players whereas the Sunflower and Streak make do with basic units. The Burese is the most efficient car here but it’s also the lowest powered and with the highest service costs, so maybe this isn’t the win it appears to be.

Order of results.

Fourth

@JLKpro Bonneville Sunflower

Third

@Riley Zephorus Burese Sport

Second

@azkaalfafa Ginkyo Streak

First

@Dildoplocus Mukanga Sandton

Here are the stats in a spreadsheet btw

Dildoplocus · 7 February 2024 23:43

Dear executive team at Valiant Motor Company, dear competitors,

We, the Mukanga Company, would like to thank you for the opportunity, the welcoming spirit and the decision you have taken. We are very delighted that the Sandton project has been chosen among the four of us competitors. Competitors to which I take my hat off for their projects, beating ours on so many points. The decision must have truly been difficult to make.

We are proud to take part in the renewal of this changing country for our 10th anniversary. The opening of a brand new factory in the outskirts of Pretoria will provide a lot of employment, particularly to low experience workfoces with the help of our staff training facility.

Our engineering team will soon be working on our revised version of the Sandton. I wanted you to know that every point you mentioned for improvement will be communicated to our engineers and taken into consideration. We will also survey our customers for the coming months, in order to make it the true people’s car.

To a new world, free of discrimination, free of Apartheid, and full of Mukanga Sandton !

Henri Ratsiraka, CEO of Mukanga Co.